Let Me Introduce Myself
Ellen Sulcs
ellen.cretekos@gmail.com
(914)-489-1010
I’m currently working at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield as a Data Scientist, a role where I spend my time helping the company visualize and understand their data. Occasionally, I apply my statistics degree and create models that help predict consumers’ actions and preferences. My passion for my work allows me to tap into my creative side and stretch myself to apply the cool methodologies I learn about at conferences or on my favorite blogs. While I’m content to plug-in and code, my ideal job would involve opportunities to be productive without being in front of my computer all day long.
My specialty is statistical modeling and visualization using R. Professionally, I work like the open source community does: I’m collaborative and always happy to share data and solutions to help all areas of the business. I feel a company benefits most from employees who are willing to share solutions; I’m learning to suppress my slightly competitive tendencies. Though technical by training, I often find myself presenting to the C-Suite, senior leadership and/or external clients. Initially these situations would cause some anxiety, however I’ve learned to truly enjoy this aspect of my job. Recently, I had the best time guest-lecturing MBA students about how to analyze and visualize Twitter data using R and the Twitter API.
I’m interested in working for a data-driven organization where leaders and colleagues implement strategy based on more than a gut-feeling. I thrive in an environment that embraces change and empowers employees to develop innovative solutions. For me, this includes designated time to upskill and continue my education. An agile environment is important to me as I can grow impatient dealing with corporate bureaucracy.
If your company is a good fit for me and has an opening that will highlight my skills, contact me via email at ellen.cretekos@gmail.com or by phone at (914) 489-1010. I’m always interested in hearing about new opportunities.
Education
M.S. Quality and Applied Statistics
Rochester Institute of Technology, 2013
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008
Publications
Work Experience
Data Scientist
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (May 2016 - Present)
Primary Responsibilities
Work with stakeholders across departments to enable business decision making and guide strategy through data wrangling, predictive analytics and visualization.
Key Projects
Assess Commercial and Medicare Delinquency
Used Facets billing data to quantify delinquent dollars received annually from our commercial groups and to identify individual groups who account for the largest percentage of delinquent dollars. Repeated this process with our Medicare line of business and demonstrated that it is most cost-effective to write-off late premiums instead of terminating delinquent members.Predict Members Likely to File a Grievance with the Healthplan
Identify members likely to file a grievance based on demographic, call center, claims/utilization and billing data. Grievances are associated with lower quality ratings which translate to lower reimbursment rates. Outbound call campaigns are now used to target members likely to file a grievance in an attempt to improve customer experience and prevent the consumer from filing a grievance.Enhance Transparency of Billing Error Log through Visualization
Create a “report” to summarize the type, frequncy and age of the billing errors Facets produces every night. R Flexdashboard was used to create a visualization that could be refreshed daily. The report enables the Membership & Billing department to identify subscribers and groups who are configured incorrectly so that membership data can be updated.
Management Consultant
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (June 2013 - May 2016)
Primary Responsibilities
Designed and executed primary (survey) research including Employer Group and Broker stakeholder loyalty research.
Key Projects
Employer Group Loyalty Research
Conducted and reported customer satisfaction research with the healthplan’s employer groups on a quarterly basis. Created a dashboard view of loyalty results including YTD and YOY results. Identified key product and experience attributes that drive loyalty among commercial groups. Worked with Sales & Marketing to set appropriate goals for group NPS and prioritize strategic initiatives.Medication Adherence Primary Research
Designed and implemented a survey to obtain first-hand perspective on the barriers that exist between patients and their treatments. Medication adherence is a quality metric for the healthplan that drives reimbursement dollars. This survey identified barriers to adherence as well as strategies patients use to take their medications as directed. The resarch resulted in targeted physician and member communication campaign surrounding taking medication as directed.Medicare Direct Pay Focus Groups
Understand the member experience regarding the annual enrollment period and any pain points with the communications they receive surrounding this process. Developed a discussion guide to extract consumer insights regarding product brochures and retail space. Facilitated the focus groups and created a report outlining member perspectives and the need for quantitative research. This project helped create a business case for the investment into an Insight Community.
Research Manager
Harris Interactive (Jan 2013 - June 2013)
Primary Responsibilities
Worked with clients within the Healthcare vertical to translate business objectives into meaningful market research.
Key Projects
Managed Brand Equity Research for Multi-million Dollar Client
Lead the research team that executed the provider loyalty research for several of Eli Lilly’s pharmaceutical products. Worked to implement a ViewPort Pro solution that automated reporting and scorecards by therapeutic. Maintained an excellent working relationship with our client that resulted in their continued business.Led the Design, Execution and Publication of Various Patient Outcomes Studies
Designed and executed pharma-sponsored patient-reported outcomes studies for publication. Always took the lead on drafting the abstracts and manuscripts.
Project Researcher
Harris Interactive (May 2010 - Jan 2013)
Primary Responsibilities
Executed various aspects of market research including the implementation and testing of market research surveys, ensuring data integrity and creating reports to summarize results and provide actionable business insights.
Key Projects
Created Automated Process to Generate Reports for Global Client
Worked with our internal IT team to develop a process that created pre-populated powerpoint reports summarizing findings across various countries and regions. This allowed the quick turn-around of results while reducing the amount of time spent entering data.Led First Healthcare Social Media Monitoring Study
Learned Sysomos software to provide a client with weekly reports assessing the competitve landscape in preparation for a product launch. Enabled client to keep an eye on the customer experience amongst competitors in order to refine their marketing strategy.
Skills
Software Skills
Professional Skills
Project Management
In my tenure at Harris Interactive I was responsible for scheduling and coordinating all internal operations associated with online research (survey programming, fielding, data processing, reporting). I also managed and trained junior level researchers to assist with day-to-day tasks.
More recently I have been involved in defining objectives and requirements for analytic projects. I also identify and work cross-functionally with various business owners needed to support the analytic projects (IT, Solution Architecture, Treasury Operations, etc.).
Communication
I have extensive experience developing reports that concisely summarize research findings and provide actionable insight. In my Management Consulting role and currently in my Data Science role I routinely deliver presentations to our C-suite and senior leadership. I also recently gave a lecture at the Saunders College of Business at RIT on using R for visualization and sentiment analysis using the Twitter API.
Additionally, I have completed courses in professional and technical writing and have co-authored three publications.
Collaboration
I frequently work with various departments and subsidiaries to understand their business needs and design research/analytics to answer business questions and direct research. I lead our internal R-Users group to encourage employees to get their feet wet with R and help them get started. I also actively participate in our local R-Users group through Meetup.
On a More Personal Level
Column
About Me
The College Years
My journey began as a clueless college student who chose to pursue a technical degree because her parents thought she’d be good at it. They were right! But the undergraduate path I chose was not a great fit. Mechanical engineering requires some type of spatial sense that I just don’t have. I was advised (again, by my parents) to just finish the degree and use post-graduate education to determine a better career path. While in my B.S. program I discovered that I did enjoy learning about biomedical device development and health policy; this guided the grad-school application process.
Not ready to face the real world, I chose to attend the University of Rochester’s PhD program in Health Services Research and Policy after graduation. Within the first year I knew I wasn’t cut out for work in academia. The endless grant writing and less than helpful faculty drove me to find a job, quit the program and figure it out from there.
The Early Career Years
I got my first real, non-internship, job in 2010 and Harris Interactive doing pharmaceutical market research. It was awesome. I picked up the market research process and operations quickly and really enjoyed my colleagues. Eventually I got a little bored and decided I needed to develop my analytic skills to advance my research reporting abilities. As researchers, we had access to SPSS but I had no idea what to do with it so in 2011 I started my Masters degree in Applied Statistics.
I have reaped countless benefits from completing that degree. The program was challenging and I gained skills I could actually apply at my job. I learned about many statistical techniques and, most importantly, learned how to use R. The open-source community opened my eyes to the power of collaboration and really impacted the way I approach my job. Unfortunately, Harris couldn’t offer more technical work and kept blaming the economy for cutting benefits and non-existent raises.
The Present
I started to check out other options in the Rochester area and ended up at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. They have been a great employer the past 3+ years and have always made me feel valued. I recently transitioned to the Data Science team in an effort to branch out from survey research. I’ve had to up my data wrangling skills (thanks, Coursera!) - it’s amazing how all my graduate-school projects dealt with relatively clean data.
While I love to nerd-out, I also value getting away from my computer screen. In my free time I enjoy traveling - my husband and I try to explore someplace new each year. Our most recent adventures include trips to New Zealand, Colorado and Utah. And I’m really looking forward to hitting up Whistler in March!
Outside of the office, I spend my time hiking our pups (Doppler and Newton), training at Crossfit and snowboarding. I recently decided to try my hand at gardening - it is a work in progress - Newton keeps stealing my vegetables.
